Salary-cap restrictions limit Bulls flexibility next season

Big money tied up for players with injury issues will force club to be creative in assembling roster

May 12, 2012|By K.C. Johnson, Chicago Tribune reporter

Derrick Rose, who underwent successful surgery to repair the torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee Saturday, will make $15,506,632 for a 2012-13 season of which he will miss a significant portion.

Luol Deng, who may miss the beginning of next season if opts for surgery to repair the torn ligament in his left wrist after the Olympics, will pocket $14,275,000.

That's close to $56 million committed to four players. Last season's salary cap, which teams can exceed using exceptions, stood at $58.044 million.

Throw in $5 million guaranteed for Richard Hamilton, $2.155 million guaranteed for Taj Gibson, $1.066 million guaranteed for Jimmy Butler and a likely $5 million contract when the Bulls match an offer for restricted free agent Omer Asik and the Bulls are up to just above $69 million for eight players.

Last season's luxury tax threshold stood at $70.3 million, and it is projected to rise only nominally while becoming more punitive in the future.

All this translates to two things: Unless they can creatively deal with what are the essentially expiring contracts of Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer and C.J. Watson, what you see is what you get for the 2012-13 Bulls. And there is virtually no chance the Bulls will use the amnesty clause on Boozer this summer.

Doing the latter would drop the Bulls' salary commitments only to roughly $54 million for next season. That would leave them with approximately $4 million of salary-cap space, as well as a new exception in the latest collective bargaining agreement called the "room" exception worth $2.5 million. With roughly 18 teams possessing salary cap space this summer and a paucity of big-name free agents, $6.5 million won't buy much.

Plus, with Rose out a significant portion and Deng possibly out until November or December if he has surgery, somebody needs to score. Boozer is that somebody.

The Bulls will be active come draft time, traditionally the second-busiest trade market behind the February deadline. With team options on the three-year deals for Watson, Brewer and Korver, the Bulls can dangle them as expiring deals for a team looking to come off money.

Perhaps the Bulls will add a current core player to those expiring contract trade discussions and aim for a larger move.

In lieu of those scenarios bearing fruit, though, the Bulls basically are hamstrung for making significant upgrades to the roster for next season. Call it a treading water season until Rose and Deng get fully healthy, and the team makes a playoff push.

Asked in the direct aftermath of the season-ending loss on his team's prospects for next season, coach Tom Thibodeau didn't shed much light.

"Now that it's over, you go back through the season, evaluate everything and formulate a plan and study the things you've done well and what you (could) improve and sometimes change," Thibodeau said. "You look at every aspect. I want to decompress a bit, study and then make those decisions.

"You're always trying to get better. Whatever field you're in, I don't think you should be satisfied or stay the same. You're either getting better or getting worse."

The Bulls remain high on international prospect Nikola Mirotic, whose draft rights they acquired last season. But he's likely another two to three seasons away from leaving Real Madrid to join the Bulls. They also own an asset in the Bobcats' draft pick they acquired in the Tyrus Thomas trade. It has a chance to be completely unprotected in the 2016 draft.

This season's first-round pick, No. 29, won't add much. Though in Gibson, and likely Butler, management has proved adept at adding rotation players late in the first round.

But the core, for now, remains Rose, Deng, Noah and Boozer. And given the financial picture in the immediate future, it will be surrounded by lower-salaried and veteran minimum additions.

Rose has major ramifications on the Bulls' roster whether he's playing or not. The current financial snapshot makes his absence until he fully rehabilitates his left knee all the more palpable.